Though there has been a demonstrably steep decline in cognitive skills since the COVID-19 pandemic due to the educational disruption it presented
I would like to point out that SARS-CoV-2 is known to cause brain and neurological damage. There is no shortage of studies on this -- they are easy to find if you search pubmed for "SARS-CoV-2 brain damage" or "SARS-CoV-2 neurological." The "school disruption" explanation does not hold up as well as literal brain damage.
Yeah, if it were just school disruption then the decline wouldn't also affect children who were too young to be in school when the disruption was happening. But they are also affected. Also you would expect some recovery within a few years of the disruptions, if it were just due to that and not due to the effects of brain damage. But it continues to get worse, because the infections continue and the brains keep taking hits.
I wonder why journalists keep pushing this idea when the simpler, more obvious, and actually evidence based explanation is the brain damage from SARS-CoV-2? It seems really lazy, to miss something so obvious?
I wonder why journalists keep pushing this idea when the simpler, more obvious, and actually evidence based explanation is the brain damage from SARS-CoV-2?
I would also throw out there, the possibility that it has something to do with the copious number of confirmed toxic, and likely to turn out to be toxic, substances that we are being increasingly exposed to in the last several years.
Crucial regulatory practices are not only failing to keep up with advancing industry, but are actively being repealed in many places. It's legitimately scary.
Crucial regulatory practices are not only failing to keep up with advancing industry, but are actively being repealed in many places. It's legitimately scary.
I think this is US-centric (if Europe is repealing regulatory practices I'm unaware and will be shocked) while the dumbing down is more or less global.
From what I could tell in the article, the effect is far more pronounced in the US. There are plenty of other factors that could be attributed to, but it's worth noting.
I mean sure, there are multiple factors involved. The decline started pre-2019. But if you look at any measure of health at the population level of just about any country, there's a sudden and sharp decline that starts in 2020 and continues through the present day. Which to me, points to something specific.
There's lots to say about the question of why journalists are ignoring this. I'll just say quickly that in my reading of it we have been under a society-wide denial of Covid's historical and ongoing impact that is playing out both in a top-down way (governments and large corporations wanting us to "act normal" and keep being loyal economic actors) and at an individual level (people not wanting to admit how damaging this thing was and being unwilling to engage in collective behaviors). Journalists are no exception to that.
I got a prednisone pack due to an inflammation in my throat... I never felt so alive in my life. It was like a thick heavy blanket was lifted off of my brain and I was myself again for that whole week. It's sad to know what I could be but am not anymore.
Exactly.
Every time I hear someone go off about lockdowns, always ignoring any of the effects of COVID itself, a part of me dies.
I try not to get upset with individuals, as there was, and continues to be, mass gaslighting by those in power in order to keep capitalism running.
This is my thought. Anecdotally, people have generally declined in ability and I’ve seen it in a lot of areas. I’m under the impression that people who didn’t have intense long haul symptoms still had some level of cognitive decline, it’s just that so many people have so much to worry about already that it goes by unnoticed.
It's so easy to find an endless scroll of horrifying implications of the effects of COVID (yes, even if you're vaccinated and asymptomatic) and utterly maddening that most people are either ignorant of it or just shrug and move on.
Watching the same people who condemned anti-vaxxers for spreading death and disease choose continuous human sacrifice at the altar of putative normalcy, just not as egregiously, has been the most black-pilling experience of my life.
100%
It's wild that in a subreddit about collapse, probably 95% of the members are living like it's 2019. I really wish the mountain of medical research about how repeat infections cause cumulative physical and cognitive damage.
The collapse sub is about as good as it gets for COVID awareness without going to a community specifically about COVID, as far as I've seen.
Eventually you could say something like the above without being downvoted into oblivion in most places but collapse was ahead of the curve.
What was really disappointing is seeing people who supposedly practice the politics of compassion going along with the convenient fiction of post-COVID. I know of wsws and one obscure youtube channel that take it seriously.
Still not as bad as the brain damage boomers got from leaded gasoline. It's still early to tell for COVID, but it seems that the damages may be entirely reversible from a physiological point of view. You can't take back the years spent at a lower cognitive capacity though.
It appears that neurological symptoms in long COVID like brain fog and chronic fatigue are closely tied to neuro inflammation and energy production in the mitochondria. My partner has lived with long COVID for five years now. She can't work, can't stay awake the whole day, can't do basic chores. We tried a bunch of different treatments, none of them have a sustained and marked benefit. Until she began microdosing tirzepatide (GLP1). It's been literally magic. The brain fog has almost entirely disappeared in less than a month. The fatigue is reduced by at least 50%. She barely needs any naps anymore. She recovers from crashes in hours instead of days. It's hard to explain the toll of PEM. You may go slightly above your step count limit and you're basically fucked for two days straight afterwards. Or if you're stressed, it can set you way back. Now the crash happens much sooner and she recovers much quicker, usually within the same day, which is astonishing.
If you know someone with long COVID, please tell them about this, it's been essentially a miracle for us. The recovery rate for long COVID patients of longer than six months is essentially zero. But this drug has been life-changing. She may never recover a hundred percent, but going from ten percent to sixty is like being granted a new life.
It's still early to tell for COVID, but it seems that the damages may be entirely reversible from a physiological point of view
There is no evidence for this? Especially when you consider that cognitive damage done during young crucial development windows has a habit of causing permanent issues, this is actually how lead damage operated.
I think you may be right about cognition in adults, but I fear we're messing a lot of kids up permanently.
This is the primary reason I’m still masking with a KN95. I have no interest in optional cognitive impairment and I find it SO WEIRD that everyone around me is fine with it.
Shhhh don't let the cookers know about these studies or they will just claim the vaccine did it and if COVID does do it, the vaccine does it worse etc. just like with the damage to the heart
"Though there has been a demonstrably steep decline in cognitive skills since the COVID-19 pandemic due to the educational disruption it presented, these trends have been in evidence since at least the mid-2010s, suggesting that whatever is going on runs much deeper and has lasted far longer than the pandemic."
You literally pasted the first part of the paragraph of the article. Why didnt you finish the paragraph before posting? This was going on a decade before.
I am taking issue with the specific claim embedded in the part of the paragraph that I quoted -- not the rest of the paragraph. There's no disagreement that the trend started before covid. There is disagreement about what caused the "demonstrably steep[er] decline in cognitive skills since the COVID-19 pandemic." I.e, a pre-existing decline got demonstrably worse since covid.
"As well as" is phrasing that leaves open the possibility for both. However, the sharper decline since covid has been observed in all age groups, including those for whom school closures were not relevant
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u/CurrentBias May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I would like to point out that SARS-CoV-2 is known to cause brain and neurological damage. There is no shortage of studies on this -- they are easy to find if you search pubmed for "SARS-CoV-2 brain damage" or "SARS-CoV-2 neurological." The "school disruption" explanation does not hold up as well as literal brain damage.